For restaurants and franchise brands
Fifty locations, fifty social accounts, one brand on the lawsuit.
Local managers post to trending sounds every day. We check your brand account and every location's posts, and tell you exactly what to fix. Know every post is safe before your boss or a record label asks.
✓ No logins, just your handles✓ Results in 5 business days✓ Every flag confirmed by a person
Restaurants are a music-heavy business on social
Restaurant and franchise marketing on TikTok and Instagram is fast and local. A new menu item gets a reveal video. A location manager films the lunch rush. A staff member does a trend in the kitchen. Most of it is posted to whatever sound is trending, because that's how the algorithm rewards you. And most of it promotes the brand.
That combination has already produced real claims. Warner Music sued Crumbl in 2025, alleging that promotional videos on the brand's TikTok and Instagram accounts used more than 150 of its works without a license. The case later settled in principle. The Beastie Boys sued Brinker International, the parent of Chili's, in 2024 over the use of their song "Sabotage" in a social media ad; that case settled too. These are claims, not court findings, but they show labels and artists are watching restaurant feeds.
The bigger warning for franchise brands came from hospitality. When Sony sued Marriott in 2024, the complaint said more than 900 of the 931 alleged uses came from accounts of hotels Marriott owned, managed or franchised. Local accounts weren't a side issue. They were the case.
The franchise problem in one picture
Brand marketing teams usually control the main account well. The risk lives in the long tail:
- Location and franchisee accounts run by managers who've never been told about music licensing.
- Staff and team-member videos posted to location accounts, often with trending sounds.
- Creator and food-blogger visits you invited, comped or reposted.
- Boosted local posts, where a franchisee puts money behind a video to drive traffic.
- In-restaurant footage with your background playlist clearly audible.
The dining room license doesn't cover TikTok
This is the most common misunderstanding we hear from restaurant operators. "We pay for music in our stores." That's right, and it's important. But a license to play music in the restaurant covers playing it to guests in the restaurant. It doesn't give you the right to put that song into a video and post it to promote the brand online. Online use needs its own license, from both the label that owns the recording and the publisher that owns the song.
So the store playlist audible in a "come see our new location" video can be a problem, even though the music itself is licensed for the room.
A busy month for a 60-location brand
Picture a fast-casual chain with 60 locations. Each location has an Instagram and most have a TikTok. In a typical month the locations post around 400 videos between them. The brand team posts 25. When we check, the brand account is mostly clean: the agency uses licensed music. Location accounts are a different story. Roughly a third of their videos use trending songs, a few locations have boosted posts for grand openings, and two location accounts reposted a food creator's review with a chart song still on it.
None of those managers did anything unusual for a restaurant. They did what every guide to restaurant TikTok tells them to do. That's why the fix is mostly about process, not blame.
What we check
Send us your brand handle and your location accounts, or just the brand name and we'll find them. We check every post in the last 90 days, plus creator videos about your restaurants and any ads running in your name. For each video we identify the real song, including songs hidden under "original sound", and whether your use is likely covered.
You get one list for the whole brand, sorted by location, with each video marked green (OK to run), yellow (check soon) or red (fix now) and a specific fix for every flag. A trained reviewer confirms every flag, so you can send location managers a clean list without false alarms.
Who should own this
In most franchise brands nobody owns it, which is the real gap. Brand marketing assumes legal has it covered. Legal assumes franchisees follow the brand standards. Franchisees assume that whatever the app lets them post is allowed. A check gives one person, usually the head of brand or social, a single list to act on and a simple way to show the rest of the business that it's handled.
Give your locations simple rules
Most franchise brands fix this with a one-page music rule for every location: use the Commercial Music Library or original sound, never boost a post with a trending song, and don't repost creator videos without checking the audio. Our brand music policy template is a good starting point. Then check the locations regularly, because staff turn over and rules get forgotten.
The first check starts at $500 and is free if there's nothing to fix. For larger location counts, we quote upfront before we start.
Check your locations' content
Common questions
Which restaurant brands have faced music claims?
Warner Music sued Crumbl in 2025 over promotional videos on its TikTok and Instagram accounts; the case later settled in principle. The Beastie Boys sued Chili's parent Brinker in 2024 over the use of "Sabotage" in a social media ad; that case also settled. Sony's 2024 claim against Marriott focused on posts from individual hotel locations.
Our franchisees run their own accounts. Is that our problem?
It can be. Labels look at whose brand is being promoted. In the Marriott case, most of the alleged uses came from accounts of hotels the company owned, managed or franchised.
We pay for a music license for our restaurants. Doesn't that cover it?
No. The license that lets you play music in the dining room covers playing it there. It doesn't cover putting the song into a promotional video online.
Can we check all our locations at once?
Yes. Send us the list of location handles, or just the brand name, and we find the location accounts ourselves.
Is this legal advice?
No. We tell you what's in your content and how to fix it. For a specific claim, talk to a lawyer.
Related
General information, not legal advice. Platform rules and licenses change; check the current terms or ask your lawyer about your situation. Lawsuit figures are as reported and represent claims, not findings, unless noted.